Uttar Pradesh: Dalits face ire of Mayawati's policemen

A Dalit village came under attack from policemen, and a pregnant woman, who was severely beaten up, suffered a miscarriage.

advertisement

Piyush Srivastava

Lucknow

April 1, 2011

UPDATED: April 1, 2011 13:56 IST

UP Chief Minister Mayawati.

Mayawati and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) rode on Dalit power to storm the 2007 elections in Uttar Pradesh. However, a year before the state goes to polls, Dalits seem to be at the receiving end.

In a recent incident, a Dalit village came under attack from policemen, and a pregnant woman, who was severely beaten up, suffered a miscarriage.

All this was because of 'mistaken identity'! On Wednesday night, about three dozen policemen armed with rifles and batons swooped on Kunwarpur village under Jafirnagar police station in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh.

They first entered the house of Morshree Valmiki and started beating her up. When her daughter Sangeeta tried to flee, they attacked her as well. Twenty-six-year old Sangeeta was three months pregnant and suffered a miscarriage because of the severe beating.

The police then entered the house of Brajpal Valimiki and hit him with the butt of a rifle. When the neighbours questioned, the police attacked them as well. They also dragged Pappu Valmiki and his brother Bhai Pratap, alias Munna, out into the streets before detaining them at the police station for two hours.

But just as the assault had begun all of a sudden, it also came to an abrupt end.

"All of a sudden, one of the policemen told us to get lost. When we asked why they had attacked us and kept us in custody, they told us that they werelooking for a youth named Munna, who belongs to Kunwanpur village under Atrauli police station in Aligarh district," Pappu said.

Munna had apparently eloped with the daughter of a policeman posted in Madhya Pradesh. The policeman had then called up the police in Badaun and asked them to catch hold of Munna, which triggered the police backlash.

Subhash Tiwari, station officer of Jafirnagar, admitted they had raided a wrong village.

"When we tried to talk to Munna of Badaun, he was drunk and didn't reply to our questions. So we thought he was the culprit. But we released them as soon as we realised our mistake," Tiwari said.

Morshree, though, refuted Tiwari's claim. "They attacked us without asking any question. At least four villagers have sustained serious injuries. We couldn't take them to the hospital as it is far off. The police should have apologised to us and taken the injured to the hospital for treatment."

Senior superintendent of police V.K. Chaudhary said an inquiry has been launched into the incident.